Technical Field
The present invention relates to a reinforced magnesium composite and a method of producing thereof, wherein the reinforced magnesium composite comprises elemental magnesium particles, elemental nickel particles, and one or more ceramic particles with the elemental nickel particles being dispersed within elemental magnesium particles without having intermetallic compounds therebetween.
Description of the Related Art
The “background” description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the present invention.
An increasing demand for lightweight structural materials in recent decades has met with simultaneous surge in the development of magnesium based materials [I. J. Polmear, Light Alloys: from Traditional Alloys to Nanocrystals, fourth ed., Butterworth Heinemann, London, U K, 2005; K. U. Kainer, F. von Buch, in: K. U. Kainer (Ed.), Magnesium e Alloys and Technology, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co, Weinheim, Germany, 2003]. Aerospace, automobile, electronic, bio-implant and consumer product related industries have been seeking for metallic magnesium based structural materials. Magnesium is considered to be one of the lightest metals with a relatively large strength-to-weight ratio, and on the other hand the virtually unlimited quantity (eighth most common element in earth crust and third most common element in dissolved seawater minerals [K. U. Kainer, F. von Buch, in: K. U. Kainer (Ed.), Magnesium e Alloys and Technology, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co, Weinheim, Germany, 2003]) of magnesium make it a great candidate to be widely used as a structural material. Apart from being lightweight, the higher preference of magnesium based materials over other lighter metals like aluminum and titanium is due to relatively good castability, machinability, dimensional stability, damping capacity, electromagnetic radiation resistance and low power consumption [I. J. Polmear, Light Alloys: from Traditional Alloys to Nanocrystals, fourth ed., Butterworth Heinemann, London, U K, 2005; K. U. Kainer, F. von Buch, in: K. U. Kainer (Ed.), Magnesium e Alloys and Technology, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co, Weinheim, Germany, 2003; J. Faresdick, F. Stodolksy, Lightweight materials for automotive applications, Technical report, Global Information Inc, 2005]. However, relatively low strength and ductility of magnesium limits the wide range of industrial applications of magnesium. Reinforcement with stiffer and stable particles has been investigated to overcome these limitations of magnesium. It has been shown that incorporation of reinforcement particles in a magnesium composite largely depends on the processing steps, and also type, size, volume fraction, and morphology of the reinforcement particles. Although ceramic particles [Yantao Yao, Liqing Chen, J. Mater. Sci. Technol. 30 (7) (2014) 661; X. Y. Gu, D. Q. Sun, L. Liu, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 487 (1e2) (2008) 86; G. Garces, E. O-norbe, P. Perez, M. Klaus, C. Genzel, P. Adeva, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 533 (2012) 119; M. J. Shen, X. J. Wang, C. D. Li, M. F. Zhang, X. S. Hu, M. Y. Zheng, K. Wu, Mater. Desn 54 (2014) 436; Xuezhi Zhang, Qiang Zhang, Henry Hu, Mat. Sci. Eng. A 607 (2014) 269; P. P. Bhingole, G. P. Chaudhari, S. K. Nath, Comp. Part A: Appl. Sci. Manuf 66 (2014) 209; D. J. Lloyd, Int. Mat. Rev. 39 (1) (1994)] have been largely investigated to reinforce magnesium, metal particles [S. F. Hassan, M. Gupta, J. Mat. Sci. 37 (2002) 2467; S. F. Hassan, M. Gupta, Mater. Sci. Tech. 19 (2003) 253; S. F. Hassan, M. Gupta, J. Alloys Compd. 345 (2002) 246; S. F. Hassan, K. F. Ho, M. Gupta, Mater. Let. 58 (16) (2004) 2143; W. W. L. Eugene, M. Gupta, Adv. Eng. Mater. 7 (4) (2005) 250; J. Umeda, M. Kawakami, K. Kondoh, A. EL-Sayed, H. Imai, Mater. Chem. Phys. 123 (2010) 649; Y. L. Xi, D. L. Chai, W. X. Zhang, J. E. Zhou, Scrip. Mater. 54 (2006) 19; Z. L. zhi, Z. M. juan, L. Na, Y. Hong, Z. J. song, Trans. Nonferr. Met. Soc. China 20 (2010)] have also been reported as effective reinforcement particles. Among the reinforcement metal particles, elemental nickel was found to be one of the most promising in enhancing the strength of magnesium when incorporated via ingot metallurgy process. Nickel has a negligible solid solubility in magnesium (up to 0.04 atomic percent at 500° C.) [A. A. Nayeb-Hashemi, J. B. Clark, Bul. Alloy Phas. Diag 6 (3) (1985) 238], however, it reacts with magnesium to produce stable intermetallic compounds at an elevated temperature. Therefore, a considerable formation of magnesium-nickel intermetallic compounds has been observed when nickel particles are incorporated to magnesium via an ingot metallurgy process [S. F. Hassan, M. Gupta, J. Mat. Sci. 37 (2002) 2467]. Formation of the magnesium-nickel intermetallic compounds limits the understanding of the effect of ductile elemental nickel particles on mechanical performance of nickel-reinforced magnesium composites. However, formation of the brittle magnesium-nickel intermetallic compounds might be significantly reduced [A. A. Nayeb-Hashemi, J. B. Clark, Bul. Alloy Phas. Diag 6 (3) (1985) 238], if not ruled out completely, when incorporation of elemental nickel particle in the nickel-reinforced magnesium composites is performed via a solid state processing (e.g. cold-press/sinter).
In view of the forgoing, one objective of the present invention is to produce a reinforced magnesium composite via a blend/cold-press/sinter method, wherein elemental nickel particles and one or more ceramic particles are dispersed within elemental magnesium particles without having intermetallic bonds between elemental nickel particles and elemental magnesium particles [S. F. Hassan, O. O. Nasirudeen, N. Al-Aqeeli, N. Saheb, F. Patel, and M. M. A. Baig., J. Alloys and Compounds 646 (2015): 333-338; incorporated by reference in its entirety].